For all the dark and gritty semi documentary police
procedurals we’re used to in film and TV, for graphic scenes of the crime
followed by routine investigations, with a big city as main character, you can go
way back and thank a man with one name and a good eye for detail. Usher Fellig,
an Austrian immigrant to New York, had a darkroom in the trunk of his car and went
from being a photo technician and photographer’s assistant to entrepreneur, to
covering the crime beat for a press service. Because he seemed to have the
uncanny ability to beat emergency vehicles to crime scenes and get choice shots,
he got (or gave himself) the nickname Weegee, a play on the Ouija board.
In 1945, Weegee put out a book of his ultra realist stark urban night scape tabloid style crime photos, called it Naked City. The best seller attracted the attention of New York columnist and Broadway playwright/short story writer turned Hollywood producer Mark Hellinger (The Killers and Brute Force) who secured the film rights to the book's concept and title Naked City for his new movie, a police procedural, and ended up not only buying into the cachet of a newly coined and very catchy term, but also hooking into loads of imagery and associations to New York City crime.
In 1945, Weegee put out a book of his ultra realist stark urban night scape tabloid style crime photos, called it Naked City. The best seller attracted the attention of New York columnist and Broadway playwright/short story writer turned Hollywood producer Mark Hellinger (The Killers and Brute Force) who secured the film rights to the book's concept and title Naked City for his new movie, a police procedural, and ended up not only buying into the cachet of a newly coined and very catchy term, but also hooking into loads of imagery and associations to New York City crime.
The Naked City
movie focused on a Brooklyn police department, its hard working detectives and
forensic experts, and was an amalgam of several real NYPD investigations. There's
an opening murder, a veteran Homicide detective, the older, wiser, crotchety and
clever, paired with and mentoring young war vet and new detective,
good looking, sharp and eager to learn.
The script emphasizes the investigative routine, profiling, and all the forensic rules modern viewers have had drilled into our brain, don’t touch or move anything, collect every scrap of what might turn out to be evidence, and follow every clue. The method leads to the discovery of a jewelry theft ring, and finally to a fearsome, sweaty, acrobatic, harmonica playing exwrestler, and one of the greatest chase sequences ever filmed, winding through back alleys and streets of the East side, to the Williamsburg Bridge, and from there high up into the sky.
Director Jules Dassin used every opportunity to frame a scene in order to showcase over one hundred NYC locations, countless beautiful shots of the city's endless motion. The city is a figure blamed by the model's parents for luring their daughter, then consuming her and making her insignificant. "This time yesterday she was just another pretty girl; today she's just yesterday's news."
The lack of big name stars helped the documentary style, the effect of a Weegee photo ripped from his book and come to life. Regular New Yorkers were captured in their "natural habitat", thanks to the innovative technique of shooting secretly from inside a truck fitted with a two-way mirror. The Naked City movie was a financial and critical hit, with Oscars awarded for editing and for black & white cinematography, and a nomination for screenwriting.
Sadly, the stress of shooting in the grueling heat of NYC’s hottest summer on record, dealing with a big budget and even bigger crowds contributed to Mark Hellinger's death of a heart attack at the age of forty-four, just before the film's release. With The Naked City, the filmmakers knew they were creating a new genre, and ended up setting the standard for the thousands of hours of derivative film and TV that it inspired. The procedural and forensic format has since sent various branches of the law searching and frantically chasing through many a big city, and The Naked City was where it all began.
The script emphasizes the investigative routine, profiling, and all the forensic rules modern viewers have had drilled into our brain, don’t touch or move anything, collect every scrap of what might turn out to be evidence, and follow every clue. The method leads to the discovery of a jewelry theft ring, and finally to a fearsome, sweaty, acrobatic, harmonica playing exwrestler, and one of the greatest chase sequences ever filmed, winding through back alleys and streets of the East side, to the Williamsburg Bridge, and from there high up into the sky.
Director Jules Dassin used every opportunity to frame a scene in order to showcase over one hundred NYC locations, countless beautiful shots of the city's endless motion. The city is a figure blamed by the model's parents for luring their daughter, then consuming her and making her insignificant. "This time yesterday she was just another pretty girl; today she's just yesterday's news."
The lack of big name stars helped the documentary style, the effect of a Weegee photo ripped from his book and come to life. Regular New Yorkers were captured in their "natural habitat", thanks to the innovative technique of shooting secretly from inside a truck fitted with a two-way mirror. The Naked City movie was a financial and critical hit, with Oscars awarded for editing and for black & white cinematography, and a nomination for screenwriting.
Sadly, the stress of shooting in the grueling heat of NYC’s hottest summer on record, dealing with a big budget and even bigger crowds contributed to Mark Hellinger's death of a heart attack at the age of forty-four, just before the film's release. With The Naked City, the filmmakers knew they were creating a new genre, and ended up setting the standard for the thousands of hours of derivative film and TV that it inspired. The procedural and forensic format has since sent various branches of the law searching and frantically chasing through many a big city, and The Naked City was where it all began.
The Naked City is available on DVD and also on HULU
Find me at the Speakeasy for much more classic entertainment.
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